Witness testifies Rosemary Houck sought person to ‘get rid’ of Crystal Rogers

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Thursday, June 26, 2025 — Danny Singleton, a construction worker who worked for Brooks Houck for years, testified Thursday that he was working at a Houck home under construction when he was approached by Houck’s mother, Rosemary Houck.

He testified that she approached him to ask if he knew of someone who could “get rid” of Brooks’ girlfriend, Crystal Rogers.

Singleton said he never told anyone about her request. He was interviewed multiple times by investigators, and he lied each time when asked if he knew anything about someone who may have wanted to get rid of Crystal Rogers.

Singleton said he was called before a Nelson County grand jury, and he lied in his answers before the grand jury too.

The lies caught up with him, however. He was charged with perjury — a felony — and he spent eight months in jail.

While he was in jail, he was visited by investigators who offered him a deal — he could out of jail if he would tell the truth about Rosemary Houck’s comments about finding someone to get rid of Rogers.

In exchange for honest testimony, the charges were amended down to misdemeanors, letting Singleton out of jail.

Prosecutors called a number of witnesses who refuted most of the activities Houck wrote on timeline he wrote about his activities on Friday, July 3, 2015.

A Bardstown businessman said he tinted the windows on Houck’s pickup truck on July 2, 2015, the day before Crystal Rogers disappeared.

Prosecutors said that Houck wanted to tint the truck windows dark so people would not be able to see that Crystal was no longer with him when he returned from the family farm the evening of July 3, 2015.

The defense team said that the tinted windows were installed because Eli, Houck and Rogers’ son, had an eye condition that made him extremely sensitive to sunlight.

Houck is charged with murder and tampering with evidence in the July 2015 disappearance and presumed murder of his girlfriend, Crystal Rogers. His co-defendent, Joseph Lawson, faces the same charges as his father: conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with evidence.

Stephen Lawson was convicted on the same charges in a four-day trial the last week of May.

Nelson Circuit Judge Charles Simms III told jurors earlier this week he expects the trial to run 10 days — four days this week, four days the July 4th week, and then possibly two additional days the following week.

A large contingent of Ballard family members and friends fill nearly half the courtroom gallery. The last two mornings as the trial gets underway, Houck and turned and greeting onlookers, even mouthing “thank you” to one observer.

This writer is trying to Facebook Live trial updates during lunch breaks and at the end of each day, as well as call in to WBRT radio in Bardstown each morning and early each afternoon.

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